One-Piece Fuel Rail Bracket for Wiring Harness Positioning

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing methods for fixing a wiring harness to a fuel rail, such as using tie wraps or fixation clips, lack precision and are costly, as they do not guarantee a well-determined position and often require additional components.

Innovation Solution

A one-piece fixing bracket with a longitudinal body featuring a protrusion with bows and slots, allowing for secure attachment to a fuel rail, ensuring correct positioning of a tie wrap and supporting the wiring harness, manufactured from metal or plastic by cutting and bending a sheet, providing a resting plane and slot for error-proof assembly.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If tie wraps are wrapped around the main gallery of the fuel rail, then the wiring harness can be fixed to the fuel rail, but the position of the tie wraps and wiring harness is not well-determined and assembly is error-prone

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveassembly precisionVSAvoidassembly error-proofing

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The fixing bracket is pre-formed with a specific geometric shape including a resting plane and protrusion with bows, which are designed beforehand to guide the tie wrap into the correct position and orient the wiring harness accurately during assembly, eliminating position uncertainty

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The fixing bracket acts as an intermediary component between the fuel rail and the wiring harness, providing a structured interface with a resting plane and protrusion that mediates the positioning and orientation of the tie wrap and wiring harness, ensuring error-proof assembly

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Reliability

If fixation clips are used to fix the wiring harness, then the wiring harness can be secured to the fuel rail, but a dedicated bracket and correspondent clip are needed leading to higher costs

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvefixing securityVSAvoidnumber of components

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The fixing bracket combines multiple functions into a single integrated component: it provides a resting plane for the wiring harness, a protrusion with bows for the tie wrap, and attachment means to the fuel rail, eliminating the need for separate dedicated brackets and clips

Inventive Principle:

Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Solution Approach 2:

The fixing bracket is designed as a multi-functional component that simultaneously serves as a mounting bracket, a positioning element for the wiring harness, and a guide for the tie wrap, reducing the overall number of parts needed in the assembly

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Data Source

PatentUS11643028B2Fixing bracket, combination, arrangement, and method of manufacturing a fixing bracket

Publication Date: 2023.05.09 VITESCO TECHNOLOGIES GMBH

AI summary

Various embodiments of the teachings here include a fixing bracket for fixing a tie wrap at a fuel rail for mounting a wiring harness at the fuel rail, the fixing bracket comprising: a one-piece bracket body extending along a longitudinal direction, the bracket body including a first longitudinal end section, a second longitudinal end section, and an intermediate section. The intermediate section is disposed between the first end section and the second end section. The intermediate section comprises a protrusion including two bows spaced apart from one other by a slot disposed between the bows.